The acute inflammatory process in copper-deprived rats

Copper is clearly involved in experimental and human inflammation, as suggested by a large body of data, some of which obtained in our own laboratories. With the purpose to further investigate the role of copper in the inflammatory process, we have studied the development of carrageenan foot oedema and carrageenan pleurisy in rats treated with a copper-deficient diet according to the following schedule: (1) foot oedema in rats maintained on a 0.4 p.p.m. copper-deficient diet for 1 and 3 months; (2) foot oedema and pleurisy in rats maintained on a 0.2 p.p.m. copper-deficient diet for 1 month; (3) foot oedema and pleurisy in rats maintained on a 0.6-0.8 p.p.m. copper-deficient diet for 5 months. With these experiments we have shown an enhancement of the inflammatory reaction which, apparently, is both time and copper content dependent. The possibility that endogenous copper could play a key role in modulating the acute inflammatory process is discussed.